Book Description
for Can You Top That? by Hector Viveros Lee and W. Nikola-Lisa
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
A group of children engages in an imaginative game of verbal exchange, each child trying to come up with an animal more outrageous than the one just described. The first child claims to have a fish with one fin. “Can you top that?” he asks. “I got a mouse with two tails,” the second child replies. “Can you top that?” The bantering call-and-response goes all the way up to a horse with ten heads before the surprising ending. Children who hear this story read aloud will be eagerly joining in on the title refrain, and all children may be inspired to come up with their own outrageous imaginings. The colorful, full-page illustrations are in goauche, india ink, and watercolor. The children they depict are of many races, and the animals have a wonderful touch of absurdity. (Ages 3-5)
CCBC Choices 2001. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2001. Used with permission.